BIOGRAPHY

Photo: Daniil Rabovsky

Alexandra Carlson has performed solo and chamber piano works throughout Europe, Russia and the U.S.A. She is celebrated for her “transcendent precision” and her “soulful playing” in the European press. She won prizes at the London International Piano Competition (England), the Valentino Bucci International Competition (Italy), the Maria Yudina International Piano Competition (Russia), and the Hopes, Talents, Master Competition (Bulgaria). The New Horizons Project (U.S.A.) awarded her a fellowship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She earned her Master of Piano Performance, and Doctorate of Musical Arts, cum laude, from the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. She recently made her conducting debut with Classic Chamber Concerts.

As a soloist, Dr. Carlson has performed with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and the 5thAvenue Chamber Orchestra. ARD Television (Germany) featured her solo performance with the Junger Künstler Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. Dr. Carlson’s festival performances include the Atlantic Music Festival, The Rachmaninoff Festival, the US-Russia Education Bridge Project Festival, and the Baltic International Piano Duo Festival.

In her piano duo with Karina Sposobina, Dr. Carlson performed throughout Europe and Russia and was featured at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, and on TVRC “Peterburg” radio in Russia.

A devoted chamber musician, Dr. Carlson has frequently performed in the chamber concert series of Classic Chamber Concerts; the Guest Artists Recital Series of the Bower School of Music, Florida Gulf Coast University; and the Sypert Salon Series of Artis-Naples. She has performed with Julian Rachlin and Sarah McElravy, members of the Jasper String Quartet, and the Amernet String Quartet; The Metropolitan Opera concertmasters, Nikki Chooi and Raymond Gniewek; The Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster, David Kim; the Tchaikovsky Competition winner, Andrey Dogadin; and with the Mariinsky Theatre soloists, Roman Burdenko and Alexander Gergalov.

An active advocate for contemporary music, Dr. Carlson has performed works by a broad range of composers, including: Leonid Desyatnikov, Eric Ewazen, Don Freund, Alexander Goldstein, Rene Orth, Georgs Pelecis, Robert Paterson, Anna Segal, Daniel Shapiro, Rodion Shschedrin, James Stephenson, and Joseph Turrin. As part of her Contemporary Ensemble Fellowship at the Atlantic Music Festival, Dr. Carlson performed twenty-three different world premieres in a one-month period.

A versatile collaborative recording artist, Dr. Carlson can be heard with trumpeter Mary Bowden on the award-winning album, “Radiance”, featuring Joseph Hallman's new composition “Sonata for Trumpet and Piano”. Her next album, “Parallax”, recorded with violinist Daniela Shtereva, is scheduled for release in 2019.​A passionate educator, Dr. Carlson began as head of the curriculum and instrumental departments at The Ohktinsky Centre for Aesthetic Education (Russia), where she was appointed Deputy Director. She then joined the piano faculty at the Institute for Economics, Culture & Business Administration (Russia). Today, Dr. Carlson teaches piano performance and chamber music as adjunct professor of music at Ave Maria University (U.S.A.). She frequently appears in master-classes, with artists such as Midori, Jennifer Koh, Robert McDuffie, Baiba Skride, Bruce Ford, and selected members of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. Dr. Carlson lives in Naples, Florida.